Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia

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When the capacity exists in the country to fully ensure grape harvest, organizing protests is irresponsible - Levan Davitashvili

When the capacity exists in the country, to fully ensure grape harvest, organizing mass protests, that echoes a strange video clip of their leaders once again, proves that this political movement is irresponsible, and the interests of the population has no values for them.

It’s crucial to recall the situation in the viticulture and winemaking sector before 2012 and then review options available today. This is an answer to the misinformation and the propaganda that is being spread and refers specifically to industrially processed grapes.

Currently the cost of - Saperavi grapes per 1 kg is at least GEL 1.5, sometimes prices are higher in the specific zones, and in this case, the speculation about prices, that it must be even higher, is unreasoned. We can prove what production cost of the grapes is, and Whenwhen significant sectors of the economy have problems, and population faces difficulties, we can provide guaranteed selling of grapes delivery with stable profitability.

In 2012, it was common practice that large-scale farmers with agricultural land of more than 10 ha were called fascists and were intimidated continuously by law enforcement agencies. They were unable to deliver the harvest for processing. Against all the odds, we hear the rhetoric that nowadays, the state does not care about farmers; if they win the elections, they promise them extra money. This is direct speculation, an attempt at bribery, to which people are familiar and refuse to believe.

In 2012, less than 60,000 tons of grapes were processed throughout the country. This year, the Saperavi harvest alone, produced about 100 thousand tons. As for the wine sector, 24 million bottles were previously exported, 50% of which went directly to Ukraine. That was the geography of our sales market. Today, up to 100 million bottles of our wine are sold to more than 40 countries around the world. This is a result that has been achieved by consistent policy.

With the measures implemented by the Georgian Government for strengthening viticulture and winemaking, two years ago, grape growers received more than GEL 300 million without state intervention and subsidies.

This year, to respond the Covid -19 pandemic, the Georgian Government introduced an unprecedented aid package under the anti-crisis plan, which included aid for the viticulture and winemaking sector.

At the same time, we witnessed protests planned by a particular political party, which was an attempt of pure manipulation. It is easy to give false promises to the population, but doing the right thing is tough.